In the past, typical trolling motor assemblies have had a thrust motor and propeller, both mounted on an orientation shaft. The shaft was operated with a controller by the fisherman to turn the boat as needed. The housing generally included a motor to drive the shaft which supported the thrust motor. The positioning motor could turn the support shaft for the thrust motor within a predetermined range of movement. This range of movement was controlled by a rack connected to the drive system between the positioning motor and the column supporting the thrust motor. The rack would hit fixed objects at either end of its travel, which would then stall the positioning motor, indicating the extent of rotational travel of the thrust motor for course changes in the boat.
In the past, the top of the trolling motor housing had a position indicator so that the fisherman could see easily the orientation of the thrust motor prior to engaging power. This would avoid lurches in unexpected directions which could cause damage to the boat or injury to its occupants. The positioning indicator in past designs was generally interengaged with the same rack which acted as the travel stop for the rotational movement of the column supporting the thrust motor. The direction indicator was generally a molded piece that had a pinion formed at the bottom of it. The trolling motor housing was fully assembled and then the assembler was charged with installing the direction indicator. In the past, the thrust motor alignment was observed by the assembler, who then took the indicator and noted the position of the arrow on the indicator. The assembler would then attempt to align the arrow on the indicator with the observed position of the thrust motor and apply direct pressure on top of the direction indicator to push it into engagement with the rack which acted as a travel stop for the support shaft of the thrust motor. The problem occurred in prior designs because the gear teeth on the pinion, which was part of the direction indicator system, would not necessarily line up with the teeth on the rack when the assembler thought the arrow on the position indicator was aligned with the thrust motor. Accordingly, if force was applied to get the direction indicator to enter the housing and engage the rack with its pinion, problems ensued with teeth breaking. On the other hand, to facilitate the assembly, the assembler could always cock the position indicator until it aligned with the teeth on the rack. However, this resulted in a misalignment between the arrow on the position indicator and the actual orientation of the thrust motor down below. Even as little as a one-half or a one tooth misalignment between the pinion on the direction indicator and its proper position against the rack caused significant angular difference in the direction indicator by the direction indicator and the actual orientation of the thrust motor.
Accordingly, the apparatus and method of the present invention was developed to alleviate these problems in the assembly of the trolling motor. One of the objects of the invention was to allow a greater degree of adjustability in the assembly technique so that proper orientation could be achieved between the position of the thrust motor and the indication on the direction indicator. Another object of the invention was to allow the trolling motorhead to be fully assembled, regardless of the position of the thrust motor, and to flexibly mount the direction indicator so that coarse and fine adjustments could be made, even after the entire trolling motorhead is fully assembled. Another object of the invention was to allow for a clutching system between the drive for the shaft connected to the thrust motor and the motor which positions that shaft. Yet another object of the invention was to allow the fisherman to make manual corrections on the direction indicator subsequent to an impact with a fixed object that would have angularly rotated the thrust motor without a corresponding rotation of the direction indicator.